From Uber senior manager to London’s youngest mayor

Dear Londoners — welcome to another week in the world's greatest city (not that we're biased, mind you) and to your brand-new Monday briefing. This week, we've got a juicy exclusive: a behind-the-headlines look at Princess Bright, Barking & Dagenham's new mayor. After being sworn-in last week, Bright received a glut of admiring media coverage. But there may be trouble ahead: prior to becoming mayor, she was a senior manager at Uber — described as a "clear conflict of interest for the borough and for Uber” and a “brazen step” in the company's lobbying efforts, according to the Uber-driver union, the ADCU. More on this, plus a round-up of the capital's need-to-know news and goings-on below.

Meet Princess Bright, the Uber senior manager who became London’s youngest mayor

Topline: Barking & Dagenham’s new 29-year-old mayor Princess Bright — reportedly the youngest mayor in the country — has been getting some glowing coverage in national newspapers since her appointment to the ceremonial role last month. But before becoming the mayor, Bright spent the last few years as a senior manager at one of Europe’s most controversial tech giants.

Context: Bright was first elected as a councillor for Eastbrook & Rush Green (an area just south of Romford), in 2018, aged just 22. It made her one of the youngest councillors in the history of East London. Three years later, after rising through a slew of senior roles at the council, she was hired to become a senior operations manager for Uber (a job she left ahead of being appointed mayor).

The controversy: She was hired while Uber was still fighting to get TfL to grant its licence to operate in London. At the time, the ADCU, a leading trade union for Uber drivers, said that “Councillor Bright’s appointment is a clear conflict of interest for the borough and for Uber”.

Awkward council meetings?: In another strange detail, Bright’s new appointment could make for some awkward council meetings for another colleague, Labour councillor Faruk Choudhury, a frontline Uber driver.

Not the first time: It’s far from the first question about potential influence and lobbying at Barking Council. As long-term Londoner readers will remember, back in February we investigated the council’s £1bn BeFirst regeneration scheme. The project saw hundreds of millions of pounds in council building contracts handed to construction companies that gave thousands in hospitality and jobs to senior councillors, including hiring the then-council leader’s daughter.

Your news briefing

🇨🇳 China’s controversial planned new super embassy near Tower Bridge may be refused over security concerns. According to former MI6 boss Richard Dearlove, the site’s planned location would put it directly above sensitive government communications lines, meaning Chinese officials could feasibly tap into sensitive communications with impunity. He claimed that he had heard that the project was “unlikely” to be agreed to by the government as a result.

🚇 Ever wondered why there’s so much graffiti on Bakerloo line trains? In recent months, the growing amount of graffiti on the Bakerloo Line has been the subject of unending fascination on social media, with right-wing press blaming the problems on Sadiq Khan. The cause though, may be more mundane than pundits and GB News hosts claim. TfL says the automatic train washing machine at a Tube depot was broken for several weeks. This, mixed with a shortage of working Tube trains on the Bakerloo line (where the 50-year-old trains are mostly held together by prayers and duct tape), means TfL often don’t have time to take trains out of operation to clean them. 

🖼️ The Elgin Marbles, taken from the Parthenon in Athens in 1801 and controversially held by The British Museum for over 200 years, may be finally set to leave the museum. Now, according to the Critic, museum chairman and former Chancellor George Osborne is set to agree a “permanent loan” of the marbles back to Greece — a way to swerve the 1963 British Museum Act, a law that bans the formal repatriation of items held by the museum. 

🚨 Londoner readers who remember our long read on Notting Hill Genesis, a charity that became London’s biggest and worst landlord, may have seen that name frequently crop up in the press in recent weeks. After publishing that piece, a coroner announced an inquest surrounding the death of Akram Mohammed, a 15-week-old child who died in a NHG-managed flat, with his father telling LBC he thought chronic mould and damp were to blame. Then over the weekend, The Guardian reported that residents in a newbuild NHG block won £550,000 in damages after a five year legal case over cladding defects in their building in Bermondsey. 

If you missed it

• We released the first instalment of our new series, “My first year in London” which aims to explore how one becomes a Londoner. Stepping up to take the first slot was Mill Media editor Moya Lothian-McLean. 
• The Londoner enlisted Peter Apps (author of Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen) to shine some much-needed light on London’s rental housing market and why it’s so bad. 
• We investigated 21Soho, once one of Central London’s hottest comedy clubs, and found it had fallen into complete chaos, with dozens of performers and staff being denied their pay. Read Rachel Healey's deep dive here. 

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Wining and dining

With endless offerings and non-stop openings, we all know that deciding where to eat and drink in the capital can be fraught. We want to make it easy — so every week we’ll give you our insider guide to the city’s best spots.

One perfect meal:  It’s all too easy to hate on a chain — but sometimes the reason why new branches of certain restaurants seem to spring up like dandelions around the capital is easy: they’re straight-forwardly, uncomplicatedly good. One such case is Sodo, a sourdough pizza joint that now boasts five locations around the capital (three standalone restaurants and two pub residencies), and that’s quietly and simply excellent — chewy, soft base, pillowy crust, interesting yet unpretentious flavour combinations. Here’s to many more. 

One perfect pint: You could probably count on one hand the remaining pubs in London where a Guinness sets you back £4 or less. One is the Red Lion, slap-bang on the perpetually traffic-stricken Walworth Road. The inside of the pub retains many of its original 1930s features: dark wood panelling, leaded windows and an old-fashioned enclosed bar, solid and handsome. The Red Lion also features the all-important burgundy carpet, as all proper boozers must.

Our favourite reads

Ten big reasons why not enough homes are being built in London — Dave Hill, OnLondon

The ever-excellent Dave Hill takes his forensic eye to the conundrum of why so few homes are currently being built in the capital — from a shortage of government funding to a lack of construction workers.

London’s ‘Little America’ Is No More. What’s Taking Its Place? — Mark Landler, The New York Times

Ever since the American Embassy moved over the river to Nine Elms, Grosvenor Square has been experiencing an identity crisis. Long known as “Little America”, the area is now mostly the domain of the Persian Gulf states' sovereign wealth funds — perhaps an encapsulation of the decline in relations between the US and UK.

To Do List

• You’ve got about a week left to see the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition of Edvard Munch’s portraits. Best known for 'The Scream', Munch’s portraits are deserving of the same level of fame. Boldly uncanny, his sitters included himself, his psychiatrist, famed Swedish playwright August Strindberg and Nietzsche’s sister, Elisabeth.
• This week, the Barbican launches its month-long program celebrating pirate radio, with broadcasts, talks, workshops, club nights and screenings. An integral part of London’s counterculture, around half of all pirate radio stations in the country during the 2000s were believed to have been are transmitting from the capital — mostly Harlesden, Stoke Newington, Southwark and Lambeth.

From the archive 

Lenny McClean can perhaps take the title of “hardest Londoner”. An underworld enforcer throughout the 70s and 80s, he worked the doors at celebrity hangouts and was feared for his aggression and explosive force. Later, he became a minor celebrity, appearing on Eastenders and The Bill, and even briefly working as Boy George’s bodyguard. 

Editorial note 11/06: This article was amended to clarify some of the language around Councillor Bright's appointment and to reflect the ceremonial nature of her position